Dungeons weren’t the only feature of the world. Cities, towns, and villages dot the land, providing centers of civilization, and the backbone for nations. The common man, elf, or beast-kin is often overlooked by adventurers, but they are just as important, or more important to the survival of adventures as dungeons and bandits are.
#Dimitri’s Perspective
They rested for a couple of hours. Not only did he have to recover his mana, but Warnik needed to recover from his wounds. A forsaker’s healing helped a lot, but in Second Shift Delvers there were only hitpoints for it to work on. The healing did help with conditions like bleeding, crippled, and poisoned. The length of the conditions was shorted.
The forsaker’s healing didn’t help as much with bruises and other not so obvious damage. Warnik needed time to relax and to recover after fighting so many monsters. Dimitri didn’t take any damage during the fight and was just drained on mana. He did have a healing skill that would help him out, and anyone around him. It just wouldn’t work on Warnik.
“Ready to go on, my man?”
“As ready as I will be. I’m just glad I didn’t break any bones.”
“Lucky, that’s for sure.” He pulled out the journal and had a look around, “I think the best thing to do is go that direction. There should be a set of ruins over there with the stairs down to the next level. If we run into an invisible wall we’ve gone too far.”
They didn’t run into any monsters on the way towards the exit to the next level. Most of the monsters were either killed when they assaulted the stairway, or they were set as guardians for the level’s treasures. The two companions weren’t interested in the treasure, they wanted to get through the level and the next as quickly as possible, so they could find the World Stone.
The next level was the fire level. His
“This level has some things that might be helpful later on. Do you think we can delay going to the air level to see if they’re there?”
“As long as I keep hydrated, I think I’ll be fine. The level is hot, but not stifling right now. I’ll do my best to think of it as a sauna.”
“Ok, we do have a few flame elementals to go through though. They shouldn’t be much problem for you.”
“Yeah. Unlike the other types, there’s no mass behind them, and they almost all magic.”
The architecture of the fire level was back to the shaped stone of the previous levels. The earth level was the exception to the classic dungeon architecture. The walls were made of smoothed obsidian, the black rock polished to a high level of reflectivity. The typical magic orbs continued to light the way.
The highly shined black rock mixed with the bright lights gave a weird look to the floor. The light was reflected by the rock but also seemed to be absorbed by it. The sight led to optical illusions and strange shadows that made the pair jumpy.
The first foe they encountered was a flaming minotaur. It appeared to be bigger than the minotaurs they had faced previously, though it didn’t have the feel of being a boss. The corridor they were in wasn’t the best place to fight in.
Warnik filled enough of the hallway to block the monster from getting to him. But the forsaker also blocked him from getting a clear shot through. Whenever he moved to a side, the minotaur moved to get past his companion. Warnik moved to intercept and there was nothing he could do but watch and wait.
He did try to identify the monster, but the skill didn’t give him anything useful. It was still just a simple [Minotaur (flaming)] and he knew it was weak to cold.
Dimitri was at a loss of what to do. There was an enemy in front of him, but he couldn’t attack without his spells being negated by Warnik. He ran through his spells again, everything would be absorbed by the Forsaker, except for
“Warnik, I’m going to try something.”
“Sure, go ahead, I’m just standing here.”
He had just been using the spells by shouting out the name of the spell. His staff’s ability allowed him to skip the chant since he didn’t think it was important. That may have been a mistake, but he would have to see. He put his staff away and started to chant.
“Come forth elements of ice // Gather and compress // Form a sphere under my control.” A ball of ice formed between his hands, looking insubstantial and ready to dissolve with the wrong breath. “Upon my hand // from near to far // lift, push and pull” The glowing ball moved towards the ceiling and past Warnik, as he concentrated. “Rage within, and come forth!
With the last words of his chant spoken the ball of ice became solid, only for an instant before it exploded, sending shards of ice towards the flaming minotaur, and its opponent.
#Levnya’s Perspective
The trip out of the dungeon was quick, they avoided the garter stealing demon, and traversed the outer dungeon quickly. The four party members broke out into the sunlight of the park. The city around them was in flames, the elven army was in rout and the civilians were fleeing as fast as they could.
“What do you think? Should we blend in with the fleeing civilians, or try to blast our way out through the demons?” Levyna asked.
“What are your plans after we escape? What do you hope to accomplish?” Lauq asked.
“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do. Just that we need to get to a secure place and figure out what we need to do. And someone needs to explain this world to me.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Let’s head northeast then. That will be away from the demons, and towards the human lands.”
“Are they as racist against elves as the elves are against humans?”
“Unfortunately the ones that are close to the elven territories are. It seems like they feed on each other. We can keep going farther and then go over to Sclavia. There aren’t as many elves over there, and other races as well.”
“Like what?”
“Beast-kin. Cat-kin, Dog-kin, Wolf-Kin. That sort of thing. A mixture of human and beast.”
“That doesn’t seem too natural.”
“It’s not. They were created during the Great War.”
“Is that the war that Irina talked about where you lost an entire race of elves.”
“Yes, that is the one. We don’t really know what happened, there isn’t much history left. I’m trying to piece together as much of it as I can, but it’s hard to do.”
“I think Irina said you were an Archeologist. I take it that is not that popular of a profession around here?”
“No, it’s not. People would rather loot a tomb than to study it. They’d rather steal the gold than to figure out what the symbols mean. There are strange metals found in some of the ruins. Instead of figuring out what they were the pieces are broken down, melted, and turned into arms and armor.”
“Well, let’s head that direction then and see what we can find. You never know, we might find some more of these ruins. They seem to be interesting. It sounds very much like this world has taken on a Points of Light aspect.”
“I’m not familiar with that term.”
“It’s a conjecture in some fictions. Where there once was a proud continent-spanning civilization that fell epically. The wilderness has turned wild overrun with monsters, bandits, and other nefarious things. The only places of civilization are the cities, they’re the only place that provides hope. In other words, the entire continent is dark, and the only points of light are the cities that are holding off the darkness.”
They reached the stream of the newly homeless elves making their way out of the city. The wall opposite the demons was still intact, and that was causing a bottleneck at the gate. The guards were not willing to open a hole in their defenses to let the people go.
Lauq stepped forward and moved through the people by the gate. Her robes shone in the light of the sun, marking her out to those at the gate. The people moved out of the way as she moved towards the captain of the gate guard.
“I am Lauqueuluana, princess of the seven stars, and white moon. I demand you open the gate and let the people escape.”
The officer in charge looked young, but you could never really tell with elves. He was still overwhelmed by the presence of the princess at the gatehouse, “I can’t, your highness. Your father has ordered the gates to remain sealed until the demons are gone.”
The elven princess turned and pointed towards the hill where the palace was burning. The secondary wall around the building was toppled, and even the bricks that made up the walls burned with black smoke.
“Does it look like we’re going to fight off the demons, Lieutenant?”
“I still have my orders.” He had some backbone, and he faced the princess, “You aren’t in my chain of command. You can’t override my orders.”
The argument continued, with the princess shifting from ordering to pleading, to downright threatening, but the guard remained strong. Levyna sighed softly and turned to look at the tall elf and the human hero.
“I sure hope this doesn’t take too long.” She shook her head back and forth a bit and looked over at the hero.
“You have a bow and you’ve dressed darkly. Does that make you a marksman or assassin? Can you climb one of these homes here and look down the street?”
Irina turned and looked at the buildings and then walked over to one, “Oh yes I can, but why?”
“Oh if this goes on for another quarter of an hour, I want you to point down the road towards the palace and shout out ‘Demons!’. Of course, you do spot them earlier don’t wait….. You know I don’t want to sound like I’m in charge, but can you do that for me?”
“Sure I can do that. Do you have something planned?”
“Yes, I do. Wildborn!” She pulled her staff out of her pocket space and looked at some of the buildings down the road.
She planted the staff against the ground, symbols of the elements already swirling around the top of it. The wrists of her bracers were also showing the elements on them, with rocks swirling around her wrists and up her arms.
She felt eyes slowly drawn towards her, and strangely enough, she couldn’t help but feel a bit more powerful as the eyes looked on her. She turned and looked towards the guards who were staring at her, and the princess as well.
“What? Can’t a girl play with her staff?”
#Warnik’s Perspective
He was surprised at the explosion of ice raining down on the minotaur. While it wasn’t enough to kill the flaming beast in front of him, it did provide one hell of a distraction. As the minotaur tried again to get past him, Warnik took his poleax and swung it lick a baseball bat at the beast’s belly. The wooden haft of the weapon bent as the axhead bit in deeply.
With his own roar, he put more strength into the swing, forcing the minotaur backward and off his ax and down the hallway. Blood dripped from his poleax as he moved quickly to the side.
“
Warnik leaned against the wall, gathering his strength again. “These monsters are getting harder as we go down. And they aren’t relying on their magic as much. This dungeon is learning.”
“Yes, it is, my man. Dungeons are supposed to get stronger as you go into them deeper. But the one I ran had to rely more on magic as you got deeper into it. Until you came along.”
“I’m good now, I caught my breath. What are we looking for here?”
“There should be a library at the end of the hallway, and it should have some spellbooks in it. BTW, my man, I got the spellcraft skill.”
They walked down to the end of the hallway and found the door they were looking for. The library was there, or what was left of it. Shelves were pulled away from the walls, other freestanding bookcases were no longer standing. Books were in cinders and pieces. Only a few remain intact and usable.
“Was this done just to spite us? Or do you think this is just one of the states that the library can be in?”
“If it was meant to spite us, then this dungeon is intelligent and is messing around with us. There are lots of different stories lately of intelligent dungeons, or from a dungeon master perspective. Maybe we have that here?”
“I’ll guard the door, Dimitri. If there are spellbooks here, they’re probably magical and I wouldn’t want to forsake them.”
“
He left the half-demon warlock to the search and watched the door out into the hallway. He wasn’t expecting much to come at them, but the remains of the flaming minotaur might attract some other monsters. If he was a citizen of the dungeon he would go running at the first sound of invaders and gather as many other occupants as possible, instead the dungeons were weird. Monsters had their spawn points and didn’t go far from them. He hoped that he’d be able to keep his promise to the Ice Nymph.
“OK, let's go. I found some low-level spellbooks. I’ll see if I can use them to add to my spells. Currently, all the spells I have seem to focus on energy and destroying things. I need some more utilitarian spells.”
“Aye to that. We need to be more adaptable than just being tank, DPS and healer. We need some battlefield control, and intelligence too. We can’t attempt the same fight over and over again till we get it right. Anything else on this level?”
“No, I think it’s time to go to the Air level. That one is more large chambers where flying creatures can come at us. We just have to fight our way past the boss monster on this floor first.”
“Yeah, a great big fire elemental, that can scorch our bones. Let’s get out of here and back to where it is cooler.”
“How do you want to deal with the elemental?”
“If it is just a magical flame, I think a frontal assault will work. Touching it should dispel it.”
It didn’t take them too long, but they arrived at the boss room. It had changed from the description in the journal. Instead of a plain obsidian room, it was instead a sea of lava with islands to stand and fight on.